Doctors And Saints: Miracles in the modern world – why being ‘Mother’ Teresa is not enough

What Mother Teresa's elevation from 'Mother' to 'Saint' brought to our notice is that tireless and selfless work every day is not as important as the performance of a 'miracle' or two. Interestingly, in the 20th century, 99% of miracles deserving of sainthood were medical in character. This is how seriously God takes health.

Preventing earthquakes, floods or epidemics may help hundreds and thousands, but will not count in the making of a saint. What matters are two, discrete and separate, grand acts (or, miracles) that have saved two identifiable people from diseases considered 'incurable' at the time.

As far as making the grade to saint-hood is concerned, this far outweighs any amount of service rendered in routine. That may be more demanding, needing greater dedication, but to be a saint, and get in through the door, it is two miracles or nothing. To this there is an added rider; the beneficiary of this miracle must have prayed to this one religious person and to no other.

Likewise, going to a doctor. If there is a team at work, no single doctor gets the credit, hence doctors like to be loners. A doctor's reputation rests on a patient's complete trust, and second opinions are usually frowned upon.

The parallels between doctors and saints do not end there. It is not just that saints must perform medical miracles, but there must be a certified team of physicians to vet such claims. This is not very different from being inducted into the Royal College of Surgeons. It does not matter as much if the candidate sits up nights healing the poor and the needy, what is needed is that one 'skill', that one ability, that this person must possess in a superlative way.

In ancient and medieval times, the professionalisation of doctors was not quite as tight as it became in later years. The barber often doubled up as a surgeon and a philosopher too might salve wounds with oils and herbs. In fact, Pope Gregory IX (1227-41) could be a doctor and a priest with equal felicity.

Not surprising then that medieval canonisation was also messy. Crowds of people came with their testimonies and often the cluster of devotees became unruly in a way that was hardly appropriate. Slowly at first, in the 15th century, and then more rapidly in the 18th century, the evidence of physicians began to matter a lot in the making of a saint. It became, from now on, a tasty matchup between professionals.

From the 19th century onwards, medicine turned increasingly professional and so did the canonisation process towards sainthood. Pope Benedict XV made a medical person's presence on the Jury a must; later Pope Pius XII (1939-50) even created a medical commission. The canonisation process culminated not with devotion, but with science.

It is people of science, doctors trained in allopathy (not homeopaths and naturopaths) who had to give the final nod. They had to be satisfied that the cure the saint elect was being credited for happened in spite of current medical evidence to the contrary. The emphasis on 'current' science and the specific branch of medicine, should not be overlooked.

Curiously, even in matters of God, the Catholic Church actually submits to science and gives it the benefit of first refusal. This is professionalisation in every sense of the term. The doctors on the board do not have to be believers, or say that a supernatural entity actually interceded, or that such a phenomenon even exists.

All that they need to attest is that the cure is not explicable according to the sciences they know, and are qualified in. Even if the cure was on account of natural causes, it still counts as a miracle because real doctors cannot explain it.

Such is the despair of ill health, so compelling is the promise of healing. This drives roughly 39 million in India to poverty every year; medical expenses often get you before the disease does. Consequently health, not GDP numbers, should be top priority for any democratic state. Everything can be accommodated, a number of misfortunes can be absorbed, but death and illness are so terminal that it drives people to extremes.

When that happens, a patient wants and wills to 'believe' in a doctor, and not just visit one. It is only after the doctor fails you that you have little option but to turn to a 'Saint'.

Mother Teresa's transition from 'Motherhood' to 'Sainthood' is akin to the way we look at medical specialists. Public health doctors may do a lot to prevent diseases; they knock on your door, help with nutrition and parturition, but none of that really counts.

After all is said and done it is the ability to 'cure', even better, the cut and thrust of a surgeon, that makes for a doctor's reputation and charisma. As a Mother, Teresa helped in ways, big and small, but that only needed heart and commitment. But once she became St Teresa she was sharing airspace with God; only a miracle can light up that staircase.

With immense pride “India Live” celebrated its 10th national conference in Mumbai from 28th February to 3rd March 2019. The conference turned out to be a gold mine of information, with emphasis on academics, education and exchange of knowledge with leaders in interventional cardiology from both India and abroad.